Daggerford and the North

Campaign Session Report #13

Assassins!

27

JAN/14

Game session date: 25 January 2014

Campaign Date: 18 Uktar – 10 Nightal 1357 DR

Very early in the morning of 18 Uktar, there was a minor fire at Wayfel’s Smithy but it was put out quickly. At sunrise, the four returned from Waterdeep met up with their friend Kratos, who had stayed behind in Daggerford to work on a suit of masterwork agile half-plate, which he finished the day before. The four filled Kratos in on all that had happened to them, and learned that it had been fairly calm and quite in Daggerford while they were gone.

After breakfast, they go visit Derval Ironeater and take him the mithral Thorkil picked up in Waterdeep, and since Thorkil found a mithral chain shirt in Waterdeep he decided to have five daggers (one for each Hero) and a new battle axe made from the mithral brought in. They also handed over a large adamantine battle axe they took from the Zanbosian minotaur and asked Derval to melt it down and turn it into 20 arrowheads and 5 daggers.

The heroes went their own ways to do daily business for the rest of the day, and then met up again for dinner at the Lady Luck. While nearly done with dinner, the door opened and two women and a huge, very ugly man walked in and took a seat across the room from the Heroes. As the newcomers talked quietly with one another, Kratos suggested Lyssa sneak closer to listen to them. While Lyssa was doing that, one of the women left the table and went to the bar and Elena went up to the bar as well and tried to start a conversation. The woman looked at her for a moment, then asked, “Are you Elena Darktreader?” When Elena acknowledged she was, the woman said, “You can cut the head off a hydra, but two will grow back,” and then stabbed Elena.

A huge but quick fight then erupted in the bar, and the big, ugly man turned out to be an ogre with a hat of disguise. The Heroes did manage to take one of the women alive, though unconscious, and hauled her down to the guardhouse and threw her in a cell. On one of the bodies, they found a note that listed them each by name and general description, ordered them eliminated “by any means necessary”, and was signed, “J.” They also find on the captive, in a hidden compartment in her boot heel, two lockpicks and a poison capsule.

Investigation brought them the knowledge that the three attackers entered the town by the main gate and that they were seen coming down the road from the north by a farmer.

That evening, Elena speaks with her father about Waterdeep and other things, and learns that Baroness Priann is now set to marry Sir Frederick. It won’t be as prosperous a union as marrying into the Snome family would have been, but will ensure stability since the folk of Cromm’s Hold know and like the knight.

On the morning of the 19th of Uktar the Heroes return to the guardhouse and learn that the prisoner is dead. In the night, she tricked a guard into entering her cell, then attacked him and she was killed in the process. However, before that happened, Commander Sherlin did learn several things, including that there is a bandit camp in the hills to the northeast of town, they are part of Jocko’s group, and – she suspects, based on some intimations made by the prisoner – that the whole things is orchestrated by the Zhentarim. Sherlin is sure that the attack in the Lady Luck was specifically in retaliation for the defeat of Ssesskar and the Dragon Fang tribe.

The next day was spent relaxing and doing mundane, daily chores and jobs and then on the 21st of Uktar the Heroes were back on guard duty for the first time in 30 days. The day itself was uneventful, but shortly after going to bed that night they were all awakened by commotion. An unoccupied building behind Darfin Longwalker’s house (Elena’s great-uncle) burned to the ground, and investigation revealed that two beggars living in the house died. Thorkil investigates and is able to learn that the fire originated on the outside northeast corner of the building and he even finds residual magic aura of the evocation school.

On the 22nd, the Heroes go back to Wayfel’s Smithy and talk to the smith about his fire. He originally thought it was an accident caused by the forge, but now isn’t so sure. They then talk to Sherlin and switch to night shift for the remainder of their rotation in order to look for the arsonist.

The next several nights pass uneventfully for them, with no new leads, but on the night of the 26th, while they are on patrol near the River Gate, Thorkil smells smoke. By the time they get to the fire on the north side of town, they find the Guildmaster’s Hall nearly fully engulfed in flames. They work with others to get the fire out, and prevent it from spreading, but the Hall itself is nearly completely destroyed. After the fire is out, Thorkil looks around the outside and finds the residual aura of evocation magic on the southeast corner of the building.

While he is doing that, Elena overhears several of the guild masters talking and they mention that they blame Kelvin Delimbyr IV, scion of the Delimbyr family and current proprietor of the River Shining Tavern – where the guild masters used to meet until the Hall was built two years ago. But one of them mentions that soon after the Hall was built Kelvin was overheard saying, “Someone should burn it to the ground.”

With their shift over, the Heroes retire for the day and when they awake on the 27th for their next shift, Commander Sherlin informs them that she checked into things during the day and Kelvin Delimbyr was not in town at all the previous day and has an airtight alibi. The Heroes will continue their investigation during the night.

That night, while on patrol They spot a flash of light down the street and run to investigate, finding the shipyards just starting to burn. Thorkil works to put out the fire as Lyssa and Kratos chase after a mysterious figure that ran down an alley. They catch up with the figure and find a 10-year-old human boy. They get the fire out before it does serious damage and take the kid to the guardhouse, and his parents are summoned. It turned out that the kid had found a wand of burning hands on a dead body in a field and had somehow figured out how to use it, and had become fascinated with fire.

After a private meeting between Commander Sherlin, Lord Llewellyn, Delfin Yellowknife, and the kid’s father, it was decided that the kid would be sent to Waterdeep to the Mage’s Guild to study and learn to control his magical talents, and that the father’s farm will pay a hefty annual tax over the next decade to pay for the damages.

The last two days of this guard rotation are uneventful, and on the Feast of the Moon, the Heroes and the town spend the day in quiet reflection of those who died during the last year.

The next tenday is spent with each hero working on personal matters, mundane duties and in study. In the afternoon of the 10th, the Heroes are called to Commander Sherlin’s office and she tells them that when their new rotation starts the next day they are to report directly to Lord Llewellyn at the palace as they are being sent to Waterdeep with a diplomatic pouch from the Duke to Lord Piergeron.